Judge Clears Way for Accidental Death Benefits
Suit

June 24, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A Kansas federal
judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by the family of a man
who died after a June 2001 motorcycle wreck can proceed over
whether the circumstances leading to the death were
accidental.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson of the U.S.
District Court for the District of Kansas turned away
efforts by the American United Life Insurance Co., to
throw out the lawsuit by the family of Thomas Cowser who
was injured and later died from the 2001 accident.
American argued that accidental death benefits were not
due under the policy maintained by Cowser’s employer
because the wreck wasn’t an “accident” due to Cowser’s
drug and alcohol consumption.

Robinson pointed out that there were continuing
questions that could be submitted to a jury about whether
Cowser’s death was caused by his drinking or possibly by a
drug administered by the hospital that treated him for his
head injury.
Whether or not the accident was foreseeable was
still an open question, the judge said.

“Given these circumstances, the Court cannot find
as a matter of law that Mr. Cowser’s death was not
‘accidental.’ Defendant cannot sustain a determination
that all deaths that are causally related to the
ingestion of alcohol could reasonably be construed as not
accidental. To interpret the plan in such a way would
render the coverage meaningless,” the court said.

According to the court, a Kansas Highway Patrol
officer who investigated the accident obtained Cowser’s
consent to perform a blood alcohol level test. Cowser’s
blood alcohol level was below the legal limit at 0.07,
according to the court.
Five days after he was admitted to the hospital,
Cowser was given a dose of the drug Haldol and subsequently
had a seizure that resulted in his death.